Organize Your Space Challenge - Week 4 Remaining Embellishments, Tools, Albums

[DisneyIsTerrific]

I don't have a lot of punches. The small ones are stored in a plastic shoe box and the 1 larger one and 2 border punches that I have are stored in a small drawer in a storage box on top of the bookcase.

 

[hopemax]

Day 33: Tools

Below my two punch drawers, is a larger drawer. It used to have random park ephemera, buttons, pins, confetti and such in it. Cleaned it out, and made it my home for my tools. Circle cutter, shape cutter, fancy scissors, glue gun, MM tool set and my Crop-a-Dile.

 

[DisneyIsTerrific]

Some of my tools are in my MM carousel (scissors (my sharp little ones and my shape ones), rulers, and my Crop-a-dile. My tweezers I keep nearby in the little tray at the bottom of my table. Everything else is in a drawer next to my table.

 

[rlovew]

My tools are either in the middle drawer of my largest set of drawers or in this cute little bag with lots of pockets that I got as a gift from a site I buy files from.

Rebecca

 

[missesdisney]

So I won't say I'm officially taking on the day by day challenge, but I will say you ladies have seriously inspired me. My room is a disaster of monumentous proportions. It's the room where all the crap from everything goes - where I keep Christmas and birthday presents and purses and anything I can't figure out where to put. It was a paint room 4 years ago when I moved here and now I have converted the table area over to scrapping but the rest of the room is still a mash of crap.

So I spent about an hour reading this whole thread today - I have set a goal for myself to organize my house and my life. Lots of changes lately with an amazing new job working from home, and then losing my father so suddenly. I am going to focus on the things that are good for me! I have been wanting to just clean it out and get DH to put that desk in. My birthday is Saturday and I decided that's when the desk is getting in there!

Instead of working on swaps this afternoon I put on Ocean's 11 and started going through a few things I needed to organize in the scrap area. I just bought a ton of new brads (and ordered more again the other night - this is one of those weird reactions I've had to the whole process with my father's illness and death - I just HAVE to have certain things here and there - two weeks ago it was corn dogs this week it was brads. Go figure. I completely reorganized all of my brads and wow did I have more than I thought. I thought the method I had before was working but NO! Reading what everyone else did made me find a good method. I also did my adhesives and my punches/scissors and my flock (which I just got). Had my stickles and paper already in order (I have one of wire rolling paper towers which is amazing). I love the color coding idea for the scraps someone mentioned - I have to figure out a good way to do that inexpensively and then just do it.

The other thing I really am excited about is I have a friend who has been so good to me - we've only known this couple about a year and a half and our son switched to his school and she gave me uniforms and has taken him when I really needed it recently a few times and they are just good people and have been there for us. She is an art teacher and I am giving her a lot of my old painting supplies, jewelry making supplies and any other stuff I really haven't used in years but didn't want to throw out. Now I just want to pay it forward and I am happy to give up things that have sat to give to her!

Ok this was way longer than I thought it would be...but I know my disfriends get it. I just want to thank Hope for this challenge and everyone for their great ideas. I am going to organize this room and my house and my life!

Maria

 

[rlovew]

Good for you Maria- good luck as you work on thins. Feel free to post here with updates on how you are doing and any questions you might have. I am a few weeks behind as I went away and now will begin catching up.

Rebecca

 

[hopemax]

Day 34: Photos

Hello out there! We had a few unintended days off here. DH got sick, and you all know how DH's get when they have a sniffle. And I've been feeling a bit cranky too, and I knew that if I did the photo day, I would have to sort my scraps. I have been dreading that day, the whole challenge. I have been working on my swaps, so I haven't been a complete disaster during the break. And good news, my organization system is working! I cleaned up after my swaps and it only took about 10 minutes because, at this point, almost everything has a home.

So photos...I actually have had this done. My photo backlog is mostly on the computer. My thing is I have to start actually printing things! But I do have some stuff from pre-digital, and I have printed some things.

2 boxes worth of photos, one is from my trans-Atlantic cruise, the other is everything else.

I also have boxes for: CD backups, Negatives, Extra photos (duplicates, or things not used in my books) and the 4th box is micro-cassette tapes. The tapes are from the Disney conventions I have attended, and I recorded the interesting guest speakers. Plus, I have ride recordings. I need to find someway to digitize them, though.

Now, the one thing I need to do photo wise, and I'm going to do it as soon as I am done posting.
BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS!!!!.
I have CD/DVD backups, but those aren't up to date, and I have an external hard drive back up. However, since getting the new laptop, I haven't backed up recent photos to the HD. We also have our old desk top (which is where the external is normally plugged into) which at this point acts as a third backup. So I need to transfer my newest photos to the HD, and then transfer them to the desktop.

I have not yet had a photo emergency, but for a year I thought I did. In 2001, I went on a family trip to WDW with my Mom's extended family. We took the trip because my aunt had terminal cancer, and wanted her kids to have a real vacation for once. We lost her the next year. At that point in time, I had a Mavica camera which meant the pics were on floppy disk. I had copied the photos to the computer, and then burned them to CD, and deleted the floppy disks. Well, I went looking for something from that trip, AND COULD NOT FIND THE FOLDER! So then I went looking for the CD, AND I COULD NOT FIND IT! I cried, and cried. My parents had taken some pictures from that trip, but I had taken the majority of them. I got the ones from my parents, but I mourned for the lost photos. When we moved, I found the CD

So if you do nothing else in this challenge, back up your pictures. I got lucky, but I know others have not been so.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

Now, the one thing I need to do photo wise, and I'm going to do it as soon as I am done posting.
BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS!!!!.

LOL- I just finished yesterday I really need to start scheduling the backups cause it was a (&%$ to do a years worth...

 

[hopemax]

Day 35: Paper Scraps

So here it is...scraps day. I don't' know why I hate sorting them so much. I have a system it works...until I run out of binders and page protectors. So maybe that is why.

I have a binder for Bling, 3 for Bazzill cardstock, arranged by color, and one for non-Bazzill cardstock. I also have a box that I have for Patterned Paper which I ran out of binder space for. And a box of non-Bazzil neutral colored cardstock, vellum, and some other odds and ends.

Here is all the stuff, I have to sort today...

My plan is to sort it into Bling, Bazzill, Patterned Paper, Other Paper...and then take each pile and sort it out.

 

[DisneyIsTerrific]

I need to work on organizing my extra photos better. I print a copy of all my photos and have them in photo albums and then I print a copy of photos I want to scrap. Right now they are just in a pile. I need to sort through them and label and bundle together.

My paper scraps are organized and I have a system that works great for me. I have the scraps sorted in folders for red, green, blue, pink&purple, orange, yellow, black&white, brown, grey, gold&vellum, and patterned paper. I have these folders in a plastic bin on the floor next to my scrap table. Whenever I'm working on something I go through my scrap folders to see if I have anything to use (especially if I'm using the Cricut).

 

[hopemax]

So it took about 20 minutes to sort my scraps into piles. I found stuff in there from the ABC swap, so I guess that is how long it has been since I sorted.

Now, to put away each of the piles. I've also, after debating with myself if I wanted to do it, is to label my page protectors with the name of the Bazzill paper. I don't think I'm going to do all of it, but if the color is still available, I will. I have a lot of discontinued cardstock, from the warehouse sales, so when that is used up, it's gone, and I will be able to use the page protector for something else. I can also determine, if I have a page protector with a tiny bit of discontinued paper that I have no full sheets of...it's okay to throw the scrap away...

 

[missesdisney]

First, I have a very good system for myself for backing up pictures that I want to share. There are tons of sites now but I use shutterfly. I have a ritual when I take pictures off the camera that I do not deviate from. First I copy them from the card to the computer (I almost never clear the card for months on end - I have a big card for this reason). AS SOON AS THE PICTURES COPY, I load them to an album on shutterfly.com I have had a shutterfly account for 9 years and I have 9 years of pictures on there. These pictures are also safely on an external hard drive but things happen to things and companies with servers tend to back up well and have offsite copies and disaster recovery sites. Now I know anything can happen but this gives me the piece of mind that if my hard drive should crash half an hour after I delete my pictures from my camera, then I have them somewhere else. I do this method religiously so nothing gets deleted without two backups. It doesn't take long. Then I order my prints form there in bulk. I get a lot of free stuff from them though since I spend a lot with them!

Hope - So on the scraps - since they are sort of put away, do you remember to use them? I am an out of sight out of mind kind of person and I have one of those wire towers for my paper so I keep it all sorted by color and the biggest shelf has my scraps pushed into it. No order or anything but they are all in one place. When I need something small I go rifling through it and it seems to work for me. I had thought about sorting them but I'd need to put them somewhere then - any ideas for close to me storage?

 

[hopemax]

Yes! Ever since I sorted them into binders, I use them first. It's easier to match a color in a page protector, than to pull out my cropper hoppers and flip for a full sheet. Especially, for paper piecings. I used to have a tub that I would put the scraps in, but I would get so frustrated searching through it, that I would just grab a new sheet.

I am still working on sorting, since I decided to label the Bazzill that is still current. I finished the non-Bazzill, the Bling, Metallics, and pink, red, orange of the Bazzill.

 

[hopemax]

Day 36 - Swap Items

We really are approaching the end, last specific item to tackle. My swap items would be completely organized, if it were not for one thing...volume. I really don't want to devote more binder space to swap items, or even another under the bed size tub. So limited swaps for me, until I use the things I already have.

I use the BBS system, primarily. BBS stands for Buffy's Binder System, since she is the one who originally came up with the idea. I have a binder for a park, or part of the park. Inside the binders are page protectors, with items sorted by attraction or area. I also have binders for minor characters, which are sorted by movie.

The popular characters are stored in the Cropper Hopper sticker envelopes, with the stickers. Fab 5 and Princesses, primarily. I also have a few Cropper Hopper Envelopes that are just swap items, like this one of Mickey items. I also have Pirates, Cruise, and a couple others.

Everything that didn't fit, goes into the under the bed tub. One bag per swap. I actually, need to go through this and clean it up. When I opened it for the picture I found some fibers and stickers than can be put in their appropriate home.

 

[Mickster]

I use the BBS too! It is working well for me...made me realize how many pieces I have!

I'm still plugging along. No new pictures yet, though...

 

[rlovew]

I have my swap items in order- I am very good about that and about using them. I probably use at least 1 swap item every other page I do- For park pages almost everything on them is a swap item.

Rebecca

 

[pjlla]

Just a few comments.....

First... I didn't try to keep up with this challenge because it seemed like I was sort of "bragging" every day when I came on and said that I didn't have to do that day's sort because my stuff was already organized. Sorry if I sounded that way to anyone.

Second... now I know why I don't get into swaps! You have a TON of stuff! It must be fun to have it to choose from when you are ready to do a page, but it must be tough to keep neat (and to remember what you have!). I'll be wishing I had some of it when I get around to doing our next Disney album!

Third.. I am SO proud of you all for keeping up with this. I'm sure you are all busy and there are other things you could be doing (and maybe would rather be doing!). But the reward when this is done will be a feeling of great self-satisfaction, less stress, and more productive scrapping time. And it's all about the scrapping time, right?? Great job folks! Way to go! ....P

 

[hurleythurston]

it seemed like I was sort of "bragging" every day when I came on and said that I didn't have to do that day's sort because my stuff was already organized. Sorry if I sounded that way to anyone.

Please don't apologize. how do you think some of us got motivated. Also the ideas that everyone posts helps us all, as well. I know I thought I was organized, but I could never find my things well enough when I actually scrapped. I was also slow to put things away. I have learned so much about myself and my new system due to this thread, that I can scrap sooo much faster/better and I can put new purchases away without any stress. woo hoo. Sure I don't swap (wow, the system you need for that...), but I feel like I almost had too much stuff to deal with. Now that I know everything I have and know where it is (90% of the time anyway), I feel better about not buying multiples and also using what I already have!!!

Thanks Hope for your hard work. It motivated me a lot, along with everyone who posted pics and questions/comments.

 

[hopemax]

Day 37 - What's Left

It's the last day in February, so it's the perfect day to be the last day.

I ended up with some stuff that didn't fit into any of the other categories: pieces of felt, some Christmas decor I bought to repurpose into scrap stuff, envelopes, and some other odds and ends.

The biggest thing, though, I am going to work on today is leftover things from the swap creative process. I'll cut some letters, and then decide I wished they were in blue instead of green. Or I'll print an image, but it's smaller (or bigger) than what I want for the swap piece. I CAN'T throw this stuff away, so I stick in a box with the idea that I'll use it in my book. Or use it to create a one-off piece. Or I'll have created a swap piece, but miscalculated the materials, so I had marked my piece as "Return to Me" so I could finish it later...and never did. So I am going to go through the now 5 containers of these things, see what I have, and finish my projects, sort the letters together and get to work.

I'm glad this challenge has been helpful to you guys, even if maybe you didn't get everything done at the same speed as me (I would have gone even slower, if I wasn't leading it, and worried I was letting people down by not updating the post). Starting on Monday, I am going to combine some items (like inks with stamps) and condense it down to 30 days, so it can be a monthly challenge for anyone who didn't participate the first time, or your room gets out of hand again, and you need to get it back in shape. I'll update the post weekly, and highlight this weeks items in the first post. And I'll post some "after" photos to go along with the before photos from the first post.

And I have a couple of new clippies for those of you that finished, or when you finish!

 

[PamCo88]

I am still a work in progress. With the extra snow this week and freeze, I haven't played much in the basement, but we are getting warm this weekend, and I will be back down there trying to get it all organized.

I would love to see completed rooms and even sections of organized spaces.

Thank you Hope for the Inspiration to get this done.